I live in a neighborhood with cul-de-sacs, wide shared driveways and parking lots. As a matter of fact, in the condo/townhouse complex where I live, we have plenty of green space, playgrounds, bike paths and sidewalks—but the young children are often playing unsupervised in the parking lot…
I know that this reality isn’t isolated to my neighborhood. For some reason, either parents think that parking lots are a safe place for kids to play, or kids just gravitate to them as open spaces and parents are not intervening. When my own children were little bike-riders, parking lots and shared driveways, not to mention the street (even if it was a cul-de-sac) were off limits as unsupervised play areas. I don’t know how many times I have watched cars speed through or trucks pull in and even though many drivers are on the look-out—most playing children are not.
The other day, I noticed two small boys (six or seven) crouched down around a big puddle right outside my house in the parking lot. As a high, tall truck came swerving into the lot, I ran outside to call the boys over to the sidewalk. No parents in sight and we could have easily had a horrible accident had neither the driver nor the children seen each other.
I know that parking lots and slower streets seem like the perfect place for bike riding, skating, and other neighborhood games, but are they really? At least having a parent supervising the activity would make it a little safer, but I still maintain that this is really no place for young children to be playing. It may seem like an open space, but it really is a parking lot with cars coming and going to most people—and most drivers are not expecting to have to contend with playing children when they drive through a lot.
Also: Safety After Dark